My father told me that in the early 70's swiss repo fancy dials were made for some American pocket watches, and pointed out the exact pattern shown in this ebay auction as one made for South Bend. Among the watches he left , is an exact pattern for a 16 size. One of the indicators he pointed to is the seconds bit is a depression as opposed to a ground angle and soldered bit. Notice also the silver ring continues into the seconds depression on the 7 side, but stops short on the 5 five side. My question to the 185 community , is this dial an original South Bend, or a later quality fancy repo? If a repo, did someone just spend too much for it?

Thanks,

Jeff

Jeffery, There were a number of suppliers of aftermarket fancy dials. Some were American and some were Swiss. These were done as far back as the 19th century and continued up through the end of pocketwatch production. Some of these dials were unmarked as to company name, and some had the makers name, but they were not factory dials. These were carried by jewelers, and offered to customers when they bought a watch.

With a nonsunk seconds register, that dial might be an aftermarket dial. It might have been applied by the jeweler that sold the watch at the request of the customer.

I have some of the older aftermarket fancy dials, and the older ones are well made. The newer Swiss dials are easily noted with the watch in hand, but tough to tell in a pic.

Tom

Here is the one from my collection , oddly on a 16 size 227 RR grade watch. It is very close to the 18 size from the auction, the same style script South Bend, however the numbers are not as fancy as the 18 size. The rings on the 16 size are silver, not gold. But the ring around the 7 also extends into the depression, but not the ring around the 5. I bookmarked this looking for a match to the 16 size but sticker shock left me out. As I have had the dial off this watch, it is a flat copper disk, no soldered bit for the seconds , just a depression in the enamal.

Jeff